Women surviving ovarian cancer doubled

New figures for England have revealed that survival rates from ovarian cancer have almost doubled in the last three decades.

Data from Cancer Research UK has shown that the survival levels for women with early stages of the disease have increased from 21% in the early 1970s to 41% today.

Much of this has been put down to better treatments being available, though the charity remains concerned that more needs to be done to spot tumours sooner.

The advances are seeing more than 1,000 more women a year in England and Wales now surviving ovarian cancer for at least five years.

Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer information Dr Lesley Walker said the figures showed progress was being made against ovarian cancer but more needed to be done.

She added: “Cancer Research UK is committed to finding new ways to treat and detect the disease. In the coming years we could really see some of the benefits of this work, particularly a potential nationwide screening programme that finds women with the disease earlier.

“New treatments are also in the pipeline that could help keep the disease under control for longer, meaning that ovarian cancer becomes a disease that women can live with for many years.”

However, separate data from the East of England Cancer Registry Information Centre which covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire has shown that women diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer do not fare so well.

Cancer Research UK is funding a trial of ovarian cancer screening to address issues relating to late diagnosis.